What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

Let’s start off with the Collect for today, briefly.

COLLECT
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus,
cuius Filius in domo beatae Marthae dignatus est hospitari,
da, quaesumus, ut, eiusdem intercessione,
Christo in fratribus nostris fideliter ministrantes,
in aede caelesti a te recepi mereamur.

LITERAL VERSION
Almighty eternal God,
whose Son deigned to be received as a guest in the house of blessed Martha,
grant, we beg, that, by her intercession,
faithfully ministering to Christ in our brethren
we may be worthy to be received by You in the heavenly mansion.

Take note that God is right away identified as eternal. Note also that it is Martha’s home and not Martha and Mary’s home. Note as well that there is a strong connection of service to others which leads to heavenly reward.

Let’s now move quickly to Augustine, who strove all his life to find that balance of service to others in busy tasks and, on the other hand, quiet contemplation. Remember: "service" to others (e.g., "social justice" is not everything… or even the most important in all cases).

Augustine commented often on Mary of Bethany and her busy sister Martha. Let’s listen to what he says about what Mary was gaining from the Lord as she sat at His feet. Here he is in s. 179 which he probably preached in another diocese, and maybe even in his own home town of Tagaste where his good friend Alypius was bishop.

This sermon gives you a sense of how Augustine really spoke to people and how dynamic his sessions of preaching were. There were obviously moments when he had to stop, because of applause, and then start back up again, with repetitions of what went just before. And there were stenographers there to record eveything he said, as he spoke. Enjoy!

6. And so, would your graces please think hard? Look, we’re talking about ministering to the saints, preparing food, serving drink, washing feet, making beds, welcoming under a roof; isn’t this all going to pass away? But has anyone the nerve to say that we are now being fed on truth, but won’t be fed on it when we attain to immortality? If we are now being fed on crumbs, won’t we then have a full table? It was about that spiritual food, you see, that the Lord was talking, when praised the centurion’s faith and said, "Amen, I tell you, I have not found such great faith in Israel. And therefore tell you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit at the table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Mt 8:10-11) ...

 

This, after all, is the reward he is promising his saints when he says, Ämen, I tell you, that he will make them sit down; and he will pass along and wait upon them (Lk 12:37). What can "he will make them sit down" mean, but he will make them rest, make them take their ease? After this passing along of his he will wait upon them. Here, you see, Christ made a passing along, or a passing over. We will come to him where he has passed over to; there he is no longer passing over. ...

So what Mary chose was growing, not passing along and away. The human heart’s delight, you see, in the light of truth, in the wealth of wisdom, the delight of a human heart, a faithful heart, a holy heart – no pleasure can be found to compare with it in any respect at all, not even to be called less than this. I mean, if you call anything less, it can imply that by growing it will become equal. I don’t want to say "less"; I’m not making any comparison, it’s of a different kind altogether, it’s quite, quite different. Why is it, after all, that you are all paying attention, all listening, all excited, and when something true is said you are delighted? What have you see, what have you grasped? What color has appeared before your eyes, what form, what shape, what figure, what lines and limbs, what beauty of body? None of these things. And yet you love it. I mean, when would you have applauded like that, if you didn’t love it? When would you have loved it, if you hadn’t see anything? and so, though I am not showing you any form of a body, and lines, color, beautiful movements, though I’m showing you nothing, you all the same are seeing, loving, applauding. If this delight in the truth is lovely now, it will be much lovelier then. "Mary has chosen the better part, which shall not be taken away from her" (Lk 10:42).

VELÁZQUEZ, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y
c. 1620
National Gallery, London

Busted.

Take a good hard look. The pouty look on Martha’s face, almost that of a child, shows her disappointment at being busy about many things while Mary of Bethany is in the other room with Christ. Instead of focusing her attention at the task at hand, she is looking at the scene which we see reflected in the mirror on the wall behind her. She is on the edge of frustrated tears.

In the mirror we see the scene in the other room. A discussion is taking place, no doubt about fascinating things. Christ lifts His hand, which will soon be bruised in falling, pierced with a nail, as if to say, "Wait! Be silent a moment! There is more to this than meets the eye. What this really means is…."

Who can know what incredible things He is saying, which we can’t quite hear from the kitchen?

Mary’s hair is loose about her shoulders. Her hair, a "woman’s glory", is not in danger of being singed in the cooking fires, or soiled as it brushes the surface of the kitchen work table. It won’t fall into Mary’s eyes or bother her while cleaning. She can have her hair loose as she "just sits there". She has a wrap of some sort around her arm, calling to mind the robe of the ancient Greek philosopher which draped upon one arm, a conspicuous symbol that philosophers did not do manual work. They were dedicated to contemplation of the deeper questions.

Martha’s sleeves are pulled back, rolled up, exposing her forearm. There is a little bit of decoration on her rolled up sleeve which she won’t be able to show off now. Her hair is bound up. It has to be. Her own "glory" is hidden because she has a lot of work to do. She had put on dangling earrings, probably because she thought she would be out there in the parlour as well. But now… here she is in the kitchen, hair pulled back, working. Mary can just sit there and be pretty, calm, in the presence of the desired One. Martha must work, be less fetching, even grimy and sweaty as she works for everyone else’s pleasure.

Isn’t it true that sometimes we want to strip others of the joy they have when we can’t have it for ourselves?

On the table are instruments of Martha’s labor. Fish and eggs, Christian symbols. The oil flask calls our mind to the Passion, at least to the coming death and burial of Lazarus. Perhaps even the cloves of garlic are a symbol of the resurrection, much like an orange can be in art, because of its peeling and the sections it breaks down into. Most significant is the large mortar which is keeping Martha from Jesus in the other room.

Martha is literally given over to the daily grind.

So, perhaps you have been busted. The old woman on the left, probably a serving woman in the house at Bethany, who NEVER has Martha’s opportunities, is showing you yourself.

She is your conscience in this image.

In this life there is a tension between the active and the contemplative, the daily grind and a true Christian’s desire for silence, recollection and prayer. How do we rise to the challenge of bringing something of prayer and reflection to our daily work? How do you make your quiet stillness fruitful by means of corporal works of mercy? In heaven, action and contemplation will not be divided as they are here. We are still called, however, in our lives to inform each of these dimensions of Christian life with the other.

In Patristic terms Martha is taken by St. Augustine as a figure of the active life and Mary of Bethany as a symbol of the contemplative life. Augustine has several pairings like this, including Rachel and Leah and also John and Peter. Augustine was always trying to find the right balance of action and contemplation in his own extremely busy life, otium in negotio. While clearly desiring to carry out his duties as a bishop well, he wanted to remain a monk, in quiet prayer and contemplation of the deeper questions. How to resolve these seemingly contradictory styles of life?

Augustine’s examination of Mary and Martha is found primarily in sermones. 179, 103 and 104. In s. 179 Augustine explains James 1,19;22 using an exegesis of Luke 10, the episode of Mary and Martha we see in the painting. He emphasizes the deep attention we ought o give Scripture saying, factores verbi… et auditores… contrasting the former who put what they hear into practice with the later who listen only and then don’t act.

Maria, quae ministrante et circa multum ministerium occupata sorore sua sedebat ad pedes Domini, et otiosa verbum eius audiebat… Mary was sitting at the feet of the Lord while her sister functioning as a maid was busy with many matters of service, and free from pressing care (otiosa) she was listening to His word.

S. 179 shows Augustine’s deep regard for his flock. He would rather be a listener but he must also be a doer. He was willing to sacrifice his own desires for the sake of his flock. Augustine says that it is dangerous to be a preacher, and exercise ministry, but he is constrained to place himself in a dangerous position for them in seeming contrast to what James says (which point he took up at the beginning of the sermon. Augustine demonstrates that contemplation must necessarily lead to action in this life. While the idea is to sit and listen (Mary) there nothing wrong with acting (Martha), indeed it is necessary to act. Martha the busy "minister" is doing something great, and giving a great gift… magnum ergo ministerium, magnum donum. What Mary does is greater. Augustine explains that there is a unity between the two lives because they come to the same eternal reward. Furthermore, the Person of Jesus is the focus of both Mary and Martha. In a sense, one must arrive at the "better part" precisely by means of the active life. Heaven is the perfect "fusion" of the active and contemplative dimensions of Christian life, though here in this vale of tears they are difficult at times to reconcile.